曹
Tap the pinyin to hear it
class or grade; generation; plaintiff and defendant (old); government department (old)
- HSK 3.0
- Level 7–9
- Strokes
- 11
- Radical
- 曰 +7
- Structure
- Top–bottom 上下
- Traditional
- 曹
- Common rank
- #1,928
- Unicode
- U+66F9
Sound it out + =
Formation & memory
Break the character into parts you already know.
How 曹 is formed
How to remember it
Cao · Heisig RSH #3001
Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.
Words with 曹
The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 身在曹营心在汉 | live in Cao camp but have the heart in Han camp (idiom); to be somewhere while longing to … | |
| 曹白鱼 | Chinese herring (Ilisha elongata); white herring; slender shad | |
| 军曹鱼 | cobia or black kingfish (Rachycentron canadum) | |
| 曹不兴 | Cao Buxing or Ts'ao Pu-hsing (active c. 210-250), famous semilegendary painter, one of the… | |
| 阴曹地府 | netherworld; Kingdom of the Underworld; Hades | |
| 说曹操，曹操到 | see 說曹操曹操就到|说曹操曹操就到[shuo1 Cao2 Cao1 Cao2 Cao1 jiu4 dao4] | |
| 曹县 | Cao County or Caoxian, a county in Heze City 菏澤市|菏泽市[He2 ze2 Shi4], Shandong | |
| 市曹 | market; official in charge of small merchants | |
| 三曹 | the Three Caos (Cao Cao 曹操 and his sons Cao Pi 曹丕 and Cao Zhi 曹植), who established the Wei… | |
| 说曹操曹操就到 | lit. speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives; fig. speak of the devil and he doth appear | |
| 曹余章 | Cao Yuzhang (1924-1996), modern writer and publisher, author of Tales from 5000 Years of C… | |
| 阴曹 | hell; the inferno | |
| 曹刚川 | Cao Gangchuan (1935-), former artillery officer, senior PRC politician and army leader | |
| 曹冲 | Cao Chong (196-208), son of Cao Cao 曹操[Cao2 Cao1] | |
| 曹靖华 | Cao Jinghua (1897-1987), translator from Russian, professor of Peking University and essay… | |
| 曹参 | Cao Can (-190 BC), second chancellor of Han Dynasty, contributed to its founding by fighti… | |
| 曹操 | Cao Cao (155-220), famous statesman and general at the end of Han, noted poet and calligra… | |
| 萧规曹随 | lit. Xiao's 蕭何|萧何[Xiao1 He2] governance followed by Cao 曹參|曹参[Cao2 Can1] (idiom); fig. to … | |
| 曹植 | Cao Zhi (192-232), son of Cao Cao 曹操, noted poet and calligrapher | |
| 赴阴曹 | to enter hell |
Sound family
These characters use 曹 as their sound component — compare how they read.
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 曹 sound part | ministers, officials; a company; surname | |
| 槽 | trough, manger; vat, tank; distillery | |
| 糟 | sediment, dregs; to waste, to spoil | |
| 遭 | to meet, to encounter, to come across | |
| 嘈 | bustling, noisy | |
| 漕 | canal, watercourse; to transport by sea | |
| 蹧 | to spoil; to ruin | |
| 螬 | grubs found in fruit | |
| 艚 | ship, junk |